'The genitive points to the apparent solidity of the water under His feet (cf. Mk 6'17 i-r) rij; yij;), the accusative to the progress implied in mpivonuv ' (Swete, St. Mark, 130). Cf. LXX Job 9** TipiTdiTiiiM u; n' ii»<feu! iri 9oc.Xairirnf , 38"> ^\9is it stJ ^y^yvtV SxXotffff-vi;, iv he i^vefl-/v oL^vtrffOu rnptiToiT-riffa,? , Sir 24^ tv ^ocQu xjiCraraiti -repKri-Tritrcc.. Particular OT events also form suggestive parallels : Ex 1422 (cf . Ps 7719- 20, Hab 315), Jos 318, 2 K 28- 1*.
812
WALK
WALK
Our Lord's walking on the sea reveals Him as making material nature an instrument through which His interest in us is shown (Illingworth, Div. Immanence'^, 124), as coming to our aid across the troubled waters in which our conflict lies (Westcott, Characteristics of Gosp. Mir.^ 15, 19), and so leading us to the confidence expressed in Ro 8-*- 25. The same word is used also of Peter's walking on the sea (Mt 14^" irepLeiraTt^ffev iwl ra ijdara), so that it is incorrect to say that Peter merely ' attempted ' to walk on the water : the words imply that he made some progress in going to Jesus. By the invitation ' Come ! ' Jesus ex- pressed His warm sympathy with Peter in his desire for closer fellowship with Him, and gave a pledge that He would support him in the enter- prise of his faith. The cause of his temporary failure was his betaking himself again to his own resources after having committed himself to a course that involved full dependence on Christ's strength. Then, after the grasp of our Lord's hand had revived his faith, he was really enabled to carry through what he had undertaken, probably walking on the sea with Jesus in returning to the boat (cf. A. B. Davidson, Waiting upon God, 241, 250). Two texts, Jn 15® and Ph 4^', show how we should apply this narrative to ourselves. irepiwaTelv is also used : of men's gait, whereby the blind man who was being gradually restored to sight recog- nized the true nature of the objects which he would otherwise have taken for trees (Mk 8^^ ^X^tto roiis dvOpdiTTOvs 6ti ws Mvbpa bpCi TrepiTraTOVPrai, ' I see men ; for I perceive objects like trees, walking' ; cf. Jg 9^ ; Swete, in loc. ) ; of people's walking over hidden graves (Lk 11^ : see WoE) ; of the scribes, rQiv deMvTiov TrepiiraTeTv ev crroXais (Lk 20^** || Mk 12** ' love to go in long clothing,' AV; see Dress) ; and in the question with which the Risen Lord began the conversation with His two disciples whom He joined on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24" rives oi \6yoi . . . oOj dvTi^dWeTe . . . irfpiTraroiivTes • cf. Mk 1612).
(2) Of those to whom Jesus miraculously restored the power of walking : the paralytic (Mk 2** || Mt 9^ Lk 5^2). No passage in the Gospels is more significant of the character, or more persuasive of the credibility, of our Lord's miracles of healing than this. He says to the paralytic, ' Son, thy sins be forgiven thee' ; and in order that those who cavil at this saying 'may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins,' He commands him, ' Arise, take up thy bed, and walk,' which was, from their point of view, a harder thing for Him to say, because it could at once be proved whether His words had any effect. The miracle is thus an outward and visible sign of something greater than bodily healing ; it points to an inward and spiritual power, destructive of evil, now present among men. It is implied that disease is the physical effect of sin (cf. Jn 5"), and by healing the one our Lord gives an evidence of His power to destroy the other (cf. 1 Jn 3*). He teaches that the perfect idea of redemption is realized in ' a redeemed soul in a redeemed body,' and that He is come to deliver the entire personality of man, soul and body, from the dominion of evil (cf. Illing- worth, 7. c. 97). Man forgiven is enabled to 'walk and not faint' (Is 40*'), and this looks forward to the time when ' the inhabitant of Zion shall not say, I am sick ; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity' (Is SS'^^, cf. Rev 7"""). So of the impotent man at Bethesda ( Jn 5*- ^- "• ^^ — a Sabbath miracle : the others being Mk P*- ^^ 3' and II, Lk 13'* 14*, Jn 9") ; the lame who walk (Mt IP 15*1, Lk 7=2 ; cf. LXX Is 35* tVxi^<rare . . . ybvara napaXeXv/xha, also v.®; Ac 3® 14*); also of the daughter of Jairus whom our Lord raised from the dead (Mk 5^^ Trepieirdrei, ' she began walking about ').
In all His raisings from the dead there was an immediate restoration of the bodily powers (Lk 1^^, Jn 11**).
(3) It is also used in a special sense of our Lord's life of movement and unwearied activity. This use of 7repiwaTe2v is peculiar to St. John. In Jn IP- 1" Jesus speaks in parabolic fashion, first of His having a full working day (cf. 9'*) of twelve hours, during which He walks in the light of life without fear of danger in the path of His heavenly Father's will, and then of the coming on of the night of death, when walking, as regulated by present con- ditions, will be ended for Him ; because it is His enemies' ' hour,' coinciding with that permitted to ' the power of darkness ' (Lk 22®* ; cf Jn 13*" ; Plummer, St. Luke, 513 ; Camb. Bib. St.^ John, 230). Jn 6®* 'many went back,' /cat ovk^ti fier avrov irepie- irdTovv ; the last words picture His journeyings to and fro, in which they had been in the habit of ac- companying Him on foot, and hearing His teaching. In the same sense : Jn 7' ' walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry ' ; 10-* walking in the Temple (' ut in suadomo,' Beng. ; cf. Mk IP') ; IP* ' walked no more openly among the Jews. ' This use of irepiiraTeiv is also found in Rev 2' of our Lord's life of activity in His exalted state : 'walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,' as if journeying forth by the circular route which, after traversing all the Churches mentioned, returns to Ephesus (Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, ' Letter to the Church in Ephesus,' Introduction). It is likewise used by our Lord of Peter's working- life (Jn 2P* TrepuirdTeii 6irov ijdeXes, as when he had said to his fellow-disciples, 'I go a fishing,' V.*), and of the life of the redeemed (Rev 3* wepL- ■KaTifjaovcn fj.€T €/xov iv XevKols ; cf. Zee 3'*' '), which is thus suggestively represented as a life of action conjoined with purity (cf. 1 Jn ??• *).